It's not iPad's fault it won't print

Back in the old days when people connected star wheel, dot matrix or teletype printers to their computers the computer just had to send a stream of ASCII characters to the printer and it would print. It did not allow different fonts and sizes. It could not change the color of a font. It could not insert graphics, and so on...

Today, when you buy a printer it comes with a CD that has driver software on it that allows for using the printer that runs in the Windows or Mac operating systems. There is no iPad driver software that comes with the printer. Why is this an Apple short coming?

Because just like in the old days the OS has to support printing before the whole lack of Drivers becomes an issue

Click to expand...

The operating system on computers does not by itself support printing. The printer manufacturer writes a driver that works with the operating system. If I buy a new printer for my computer but do not install the driver that comes on the CD bundled with the printer the printer will not work.

The operating system on computers does not by itself support printing. The printer manufacturer writes a driver that works with the operating system. If I buy a new printer for my computer but do not install the driver that comes on the CD bundled with the printer the printer will not work.

Robert

Click to expand...

Have you ever used a mac???

I have NEVER had to put a driver disc into a mac to get it to work on a new printer.

EDIT: IN FACT... I plugged my personal macbook into my work network last week for the first time and was able to print to our network printer (HP Deskjet 4200n) inside of 10 seconds. It FOUND it, grabbed the drivers and self installed them, then printed.

When I got the printer setup by my IT department on my work laptop (Dell latitude 420) I had to get the printer address, have 3 different remote techs net meeting in, log in as admins, hunt down the driver software, try to find the printer, install the drivers, restart, then print a test page.

The operating system on computers does not by itself support printing. The printer manufacturer writes a driver that works with the operating system. If I buy a new printer for my computer but do not install the driver that comes on the CD bundled with the printer the printer will not work.

Robert

Click to expand...

Well that depends on what kind of printer it is. Windows has tons of default drivers built into the OS.

I have NEVER had to put a driver disc into a mac to get it to work on a new printer.

EDIT: IN FACT... I plugged my personal macbook into my work network last week for the first time and was able to print to our network printer (HP Deskjet 4200n) inside of 10 seconds. It FOUND it, grabbed the drivers and self installed them, then printed.

When I got the printer setup by my IT department on my work laptop (Dell latitude 420) I had to get the printer address, have 3 different remote techs net meeting in, log in as admins, hunt down the driver software, try to find the printer, install the drivers, restart, then print a test page.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have been a Mac user for years and apparently made a mistake. I now just wonder why printer manufacturers include driver software with their printers if it is not needed? I am not nor ever been connected to a network so if the network has the drivers it needs to work with the network printer I cannot take advantage of that.

gee, I wish I had a semi sarcastic response to the semi sarcastic Have you ever used a mac??? lol

The operating system on computers does not by itself support printing. The printer manufacturer writes a driver that works with the operating system. If I buy a new printer for my computer but do not install the driver that comes on the CD bundled with the printer the printer will not work.

Robert

Click to expand...

I think you missed the point of what I was saying so let me try again. It doesn't matter how many Drivers you write or how many CD containing drivers you have, If there isn't OS support for printing you will never print.

And about the writing the driver for the OS if there are no printing support in the OS how are you going to write a program that utilizes the printing functions of the OS? And yes the OS either does or does not support printing natively no driver needed.

Maybe you have heard of CUPS its the part of OS X that handles all printing functions without it that Driver you are so fond of is 100% useless and CUPS will print to any printer that supports RAW no driver needed.

I think you missed the point of what I was saying so let me try again. It doesn't matter how many Drivers you write or how many CD containing drivers you have, If there isn't OS support for printing you will never print.

Click to expand...

Exactly, there needs to be some implementation of printing in the OS itself. That's where Apple is failing, not providing that basic feature.

After they implement that, then it will be up to the printer manufacturers to write printer drivers for the OS.

As of now, they can write a printer driver, but it just wont work on the iPad.

OK, fair enough, I consider myself better educated. Thanks for that you all.

I just hope that Apple steps up and changes things. It's not like there is not enough desire for this change in the user community.

At any rate its a huge undertaking. First Apple must do its thing and on top of that printer manufacturers need to add their iPad drivers.

I am getting a headache. I want to go back to my teletype being run by my TRS80 Radio Shack computer. I had to punch a hole in the wall to put the teletype in another room cause it was so noisy but I could understand it all.

As of now, they can write a printer driver, but it just wont work on the iPad.

Click to expand...

How?
I assume would they would have to have a reference for development and since there is no OS support and therefore no reference to write said driver to as of now I would say there is not a single person on the planet writing OS specific drivers for iPad with the exception of some guy at Apple maybe.

I've long thought that drivers should reside on the printer hardware, not the computer OS. The printer manufacturers should have firmware or software on their printers which interpret whatever is sent to them, not the other way around. in that kind of world, printing from the ipad would be no big deal.

all that said, I'm not sure I have a need to ever print from the iPad. If it's something personal, I just bring the iPad itself, why print? If it's something more complex (graphics, etc), I'm going to do that via a desktop anyway, as I'll need to use more complex tools than are available on the iPad.

If is is not possible to print because of the OS , how does HP iprint photo accomplish its task on the iphone?

Click to expand...

It is entirely possible to write a program that would include the necessary OS functions to print, and since iPad OS X is based on open source any developer would have access to the necessary components to do so. Not saying that is the case but since Apple says no print support I assume this is how they got there.

I've long thought that drivers should reside on the printer hardware, not the computer OS. The printer manufacturers should have firmware or software on their printers which interpret whatever is sent to them, not the other way around. in that kind of world, printing from the ipad would be no big deal.

Click to expand...

That was the idea behind PostScript and PCL (among others). The problem is that while you can define the document fairly well in a generic control language, it's far more difficult to abstract hardware specific things like paper handling, color correction, borderless printing, collation, stapling, duplexing etc. It's these functions that frequently require the dedicated drivers under Windows. Apple handles this by pre-installing every common driver you might need at the cost of disk space.

The workaround for this, is to not have the iPad print to a printer at all. Instead have it print via a print server which will be aware of and handle the specifics. A shared printer in Windows has a repository of drivers associated with it that a client can access. Apple could extend Bonjour to act similarly.

"We weren't the first to this party, but were going to be the best...Look! A preview! Of what you want to print! Before you actually print it! Isn't that amazing?
<long awkward pause>
You guys see Toy Story 4 yet...?"

Maybe you have heard of CUPS its the part of OS X that handles all printing functions without it that Driver you are so fond of is 100% useless and CUPS will print to any printer that supports RAW no driver needed.

Click to expand...

CUPS = Common Unix Printing System and a number of Linux distros use it also. Of course, it is more elegantly implemented in OS X.

The workaround for this, is to not have the iPad print to a printer at all. Instead have it print via a print server which will be aware of and handle the specifics. A shared printer in Windows has a repository of drivers associated with it that a client can access. Apple could extend Bonjour to act similarly.

Click to expand...

Have you ever added a network printer or a shared printer? Part of that process includes installing the print driver locally to the computer sending the print job to the print server. If you think otherwise go thru and delete all print drivers on your computer and then try to print to a print server. oops nothing happened, maybe I need those drivers locally after all. And I had no idea that Bonjour was responsible for a Mac not having a driver repository of drivers associated with it that a client could access. I wonder what the communications protocol on Window is called that does that.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.